




Class. T B U ?. L 

Book __ 

GopightN?_ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 


‘ 















MERCHANDISING THE 
PLUMBING BUSINESS 




I 


MERCHANDISING the 
PLUMBING BUSINESS 


By KARL WILLIAM ZOELLER 

u 


Price $1.50 



First Edition 


Published By 

DOMESTIC ENGINEERING CO. 

Chicago 




Copyright 

Domestic Engineering Co. 
1921 





JAN -7 1922. 


©CU654149 

<nh , 7 , 


PROLOGUE 


T HE following pages contain many things that will 
not be agreeable to those progressive plumbers 
who are already merchants. 

It is the wish of the author to say to these men 
that a condition such as exists in the plumbing field is not 
judged by the few, but by the many. Those who have realized 
the opportunities of merchandising the plumbing business 
will be looked upon as the ideal to which others may aspire. 

If this book serves its purpose, and helps others to achieve 
more quickly this qualification, we will have more progressive 
plumbers, there will be more profit, more pleasure for those 
who have pioneered, and the public will have a greater res¬ 
pect for the trade as a whole. 




CONTENTS 


Introduction . 11 

CHAPTER I. 

What Does the Public Know About the Plumbing 
Business? . 13 

CHAPTER II. 

Sanitation and Hygiene. 15 

CHAPTER III. 

Merchandising . 20 

CHAPTER IV. 

Window Display . 25 

CHAPTER V. 

The Problem of Price Tags. 29 

CHAPTER VI. 

Showroom . 31 

CHAPTER VII. 

Clerks in the Plumbing Store. 34 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Local Advertising . 36 

CHAPTER IX. 

Effect of Advertising. 40 

CHAPTER X. 

Location of Store. 42 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Jobbing Plumber . 45 

CHAPTER XII. 

The Merchant Plumber. 49 
















Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


CHAPTER XIII. 

The Contracting Plumber. 52 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Small Town Plumber. 57 

CHAPTER XV. 

The Journeyman Plumber. 61 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The Metropolitan Plumber. 65 

CHAPTER XVII. 

What is to Become of the Alley Plumber?. 69 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Plumbing Supply Jobber. 71 

CHAPTER XIX. 

The Plumbing Supply Salesman . 76 

CHAPTER XX. 

The Manufacturers’ Problem. 79 

CHAPTER XXI. 

The Biggest Business in the World. 82 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Comfort Stations . 87 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

The National Trade Extension Bureau. 90 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

What a Plumber Sells. 93 

CHAPTER XXV. 

How to Accomplish These Ideals. 97 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

The “Bath a Day” Campaign.101 


















INTRODUCTION. 


HIS is the age of efficiency. In almost every 



line of industry old-fashioned and obsolete prac- 


tices are being replaced by efficient methods. It 
is, therefore, not remarkable that the plumbing busi¬ 
ness should be modernized. 

As a matter of fact, it is remarkable that it was not 
done years ago. Everyone connected with this inter¬ 
esting business is keenly aware of the fact that, in a 
large measure, the sanitary and hygienic condition of 
American homes is due to the progress made by the 
plumbing industry. 

The average individual engaged in the plumbing 
business has been so busy doing the actual work that 
he has not had time to keep up to the minute. Then, 
too, the work is mechanical, and often it happens that 
a mind trained to mechanics does not easily grasp the 
business angle. 

That there are exceptions to this rule is evidenced 
by the fact that the trade is awakening to the oppor¬ 
tunities of modern business. But we speak of the 
great majority of the plumbing trade and that means, 
manufacturers, supply houses and master plumbers. 

There is need for a keener knowledge of the oppor¬ 
tunities in the plumbing business as a business propo¬ 
sition. 


11 


Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


The public knows too little about the plumbing busi¬ 
ness, and until the curtains are drawn aside and the 
plumber is shown in his true light as a merchant and 
a sanitary engineer, the public will not accord him its 
good will. 

This book is written in the hope that it will make a 
little clearer some of the opportunities that exist and 
also that it may suggest some ideas that will help those 
interested in the plumbing business to get the most out 
of their work. 


12 




CHAPTER I 


What Does the Public Know About the 
Plumbing Business? 

HE public knows less about the plumbing busi¬ 



ness than it does about almost any other line 


of endeavor. About the only business men out¬ 
side of the trade who have any definite knowledge of 
the business are the building contractors and archi¬ 
tects, and these people too often have only wrong 

opinions. 

But the public, as a whole, knows absolutely nothing 
of the business. It has a general impression that the 
plumber is some kind of a high-class workman, a man 
who is called in when something breaks in the water 
system. This is a natural thing for them to think, be¬ 
cause a majority of people do not build their own 
homes. They are built by construction companies and 
the owners buy them complete and finished. Their 
only contact with the plumber is for repair work. 

Another reason is the fact that the most important 
part of the sanitary engineer’s work is hidden behind 
the walls and covered up with plaster. Because the 
plumber usually makes a fiat price for his work and 
includes the fixtures, the public sees only the fixtures 
and does not stop to realize the value of the work hid¬ 
den in the floors and the walls. 


13 


Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


\ 


Most cities have sanitary codes and laws, and before 
a plumber can qualify to become a master plumber 
he must know these rules thoroughly. He must be 
able to interpret them into terms of practical sanitary 
engineering. There is not one person in a thousand 
who is acquainted with this fact. American homes are 
well equipped with proper drainage; vents and traps 
are placed with an understanding that guards the 
occupants of buildings from bad odors and disease; 
but the public does not realize that the plumber is 
responsible for all this. 

You hear it said every day in the trade that the 
plumber is in a large measure responsible for the health 
of the community. But this is a generality, and even if 
one of the laity hears of it, it never means anything to 
him. 

The matter of water pressure is another thing that 
requires technical knowledge. Just stop to realize 
what it means to distribute water at an even pressure 
all over a big building. It’s true that architects’ speci¬ 
fications show where water lines should go, but what 
architect knows the details of fittings and sizes of pipe 
that are necessary to properly execute his drawings 
into a practical, operating supply system? 

Truly, the public knows nothing of the plumbing 
business. Outsiders probably know less of this busi¬ 
ness than they know about any other of the trades in 
which mechanics are engaged. 

14 




CHAPTER II. 


Sanitation and Hygiene. 


M OST people engaged in the sanitary plumbing- 
business are dimly aware of the fact that the 
health of the community is largely due to 
good plumbing; but few realize definitely how this is 
accomplished. 

A sanitary toilet means much more than just a good 
toilet bowl and seat. A clean inviting seat helps the 
individual pass off the waste from the body because 
of the cleanliness of the seat. An uninviting seat and 
toilet causes the individual to hold his feces in the 
body, thus causing a poisoning of his system. This 
lowers his vitality and causes a loss of ability and gen¬ 
eral usefulness. In a factory this loss may be com¬ 
puted in actual money. Clean toilets mean to the fac¬ 
tory an actual increase of ability of its force of em¬ 
ployees. 

The drinking fountain is but little understood. 
Medical science teaches us that the body should at all 
times be kept at an even temperature. Water should 
not be iced, but cooled so that it will not produce 
cramps. 

Drinking water with meals and after meals helps 
digestion, helps keep the body at normal temperature 

15 



Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


an d assists the body in throwing - off waste matter 
through the pores, the bowels and the kidneys. 

This again is a matter which the factory may figure 
on the basis of dollars. 

Then there’s the element of time saved. If each 
factory had drinking fountains distributed at regular 
intervals, just figure how much actual working time 
would be saved by the employees who must now 
walk hundreds of feet for a drink, and the same 
distance bacik again to their work. 

One of the most important items in the plumbing 
business, in the matter of hygiene, is the lavatory, both 
in the home as well as in the office or factory. 

Many doctors say that the greatest advance in medi¬ 
cine and surgery was when physicians learned to wash 
their hands. Before they learned the value of wash¬ 
ing the hands, disease was carried from one patient to 
another. 

Ihe hands constantly coming into contact with dis¬ 
ease germs without being washed transferred them to 
the next object they touched or handled.* 

If one person in the home brings in a disease germ 
on the hand, contracted by hanging onto a car strap 
or from coming into contact with money that was 
Handled by a diseased person, soon that germ will be 
spread to every member of the family. 

Doctors have warned us that after the use of the 

16 











Sanitation and Hygiene 


toilet, we should particularly use great care in washing 
the hands. The fecal matter from our bodies is loaded 
with disease germs. Hence, there should be ample 
facilities near the toilet for washing the hands. 

Truly few of us have understood the value of hav¬ 
ing a clean and inviting sanitary lavatory for frequent 
use. 

Then comes the question of bathing. I quote from 
a recent speech by Doctor 1 homas Darlington, ex¬ 
commissioner of health for the City of New York. 
“What do shower baths mean? Simply to keep clean? 
No, nothing of the kind. I speak of energy and getting 
tired. If people, when they become very tired after a 
hard day’s work, could have a shower, they would 
quickly be relieved of much of this distressing fatigue. 
If you can strip off and get into a warm shower, use 
soap and get rid of all the dirt, then gradually turn 
off all the warm water until the water chills you; all 
the fatigue poisons will be driven into the blood and 
sent to the kidneys; then as you turn the warm water 
on again, it brings the blood to the surface of the skin. 
This dilutes the poisons and sends them out of the 
kidneys and out of the body. So much so that no 
matter how tired a person is at five o clock in the 
afternoon, if he takes a shower of this kind and 
changes his clothes, the fatigue of the day is gone. He 

is then ready to enjoy his evening meal.” 

17 




Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


Every home should be equipped with a shower. 
Even if the bather wants to soak in a tub, a shower 
should be provided so that the disease and filth, which 
have been washed out of the pores of the skin, can be 
washed away and not rubbed into the skin again with 
a towel. 

The subject of bacteria which accumulate on the 
teeth and infect the tonsils is a matter that should be 
thoroughly studied by the modern sanitary plumber. 

What happens in almost every home in the morn¬ 
ing? Every member of the family goes into the bath 
room and washes his teeth. Where? Into the lava¬ 
tory. The bacteria that produce Bright’s Disease, ul¬ 
ceration of the stomach and many other ailments just 
as deadly are washed from the mouth and ejected into 
the lavatory bowl. 

Then the next member of the family comes along 
and washes face and hands in this disease-laden 
lavatory. 

The manufacturers of sanitary fixtures have per¬ 
fected some very practical dental lavatories for the 
purpose of washing the teeth and mouth. This par¬ 
ticular sanitary appliance, although vital to the health 
of every home, is sadly lacking in the vast majority 
of houses. It is safe to say that not one per cent of 
the houses in America are equipped with dental lava¬ 
tories. 


18 




Sanitation and Hygiene 


These are some of the fundamentals in sanitation 
and hygiene that every plumber should know. Space 
does not permit a more thorough discussion, and the 
subject has only been skimmed over lightly. But 
enough has been recorded so that the sanitary engineer 
will have a slight idea of the vastness of his work and 
the vital necessity of acquainting the public with what 
he is trying to accomplish. 


/ 


19 








CHAPTER III. 


Merchandising. 


NEW word is creeping into daily use in the 



plumbing business, and that is “merchandis- 


ing.’’ It means to buy and sell merchandise 
under modern business methods, to advertise, to create 
a market for better materials and to build good will. 

Heretofore, the plumber was content to sell his cus¬ 
tomers almost anything they wanted to buy, and not 
knowing the relative value and service of the various 
plumbing fixtures, they demanded the cheaper kind 
under the impression that they were saving money. 

Because the plumbing business was not advertised, 
the public knew very little about it. The plumber was 
more interested in the mechanical end of his business— 
the installations. When the plumber is asked for 
prices, usually he names a figure that covers a com¬ 
pleted job, both the fixtures and the labor, and the 
customer has the impression that plumbing is ex¬ 
pensive. 

That plumbing is not expensive is known only to the 
plumbing fraternity. Ask anyone not engaged in the 
business what he thinks about prices in plumbing, and 
nine times out of ten he will begin by relating instances 
in which he claims he has been overcharged. 


20 


Merchandising 


Now this condition is so universal that it has become 
a menace to the trade. The public must be taken into 
the confidence of the plumber. People should know, 
first of all, the separate costs of the labor, the materials 
and the fixtures. And perhaps the most important part 
of merchandising is this, that the materials must be 
ozvned and displayed by the plumber. No one thing 
lends itself to building confidence with the public like 
a good stock of merchandise. 

The practice of selling out of a catalog must be 
abandoned at once. Likewise the practice of taking 
customers to the jobber’s show rooms has a bad effect. 
When a plumber sells merchandise that he does not 
own; merchandise that is shown in some one else’s cata¬ 
log or displayed in some one else’s show' room, it is an 
admission that the plumber is interested in the labor. 
Hence the public thinks of the plumber from that view¬ 
point. 

Two bath tubs in a catalog, with a fifty per cent dif¬ 
ference in price, often look the same to the laity, and 
usually the cheaper is purchased; but display the same 
two fixtures side by side, and anyone with ordinary 
intelligence can see the difference in value. 

Merchandising includes selling plans and advertis¬ 
ing. As an example, a complete outfit for a bathroom, 
if displayed in the store or window, only arouses a 
passing curiosity. To make a display of this kind pay, 

21 






Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


it must be sold quickly. There’s too much investment 
involved to keep it longer than thirty or sixty days. 

Consequently, it must be merchandised , or sold. To 
do this a sales plan must be evolved. Customers must 
be induced to come in and see the outfit. The mer¬ 
chant plumber must be well informed as to its value 
and how it will enhance the value of the home, its 
usefulness and practicability. He must have the price 
of the whole outfit and the price of each separate fix¬ 
ture at his finger ends. A complete set of accessory 
fixtures should accompany the display. The little 
things that go to make the bathroom convenient and 
comfortable are not generally recognized by the aver¬ 
age plumber, but it is a psychological fact that, if these 
little extras are carefully selected so as to be in har¬ 
mony and “talked up'’, upon their selection oftentimes 
the sale of the whole outfit will be consummated. 

Your real estate man will tell you that often a 
cleverly arranged linen closet, or the way the kitchen 
is laid out, will help him sell a house. This is a big 
thought and it would be well for plumbing con¬ 
tractors to bear it in mind. This same idea of mer¬ 
chandising could be used to advantage by those con¬ 
tractors who specialize in factory work. Factory 
plumbing equipment set up in a show room, in a good 
setting, would sell at a better figure than illustrations 
and an estimate of cost. 


22 




Merchandising 


Merchandising service should be a service of pleas¬ 
ure and profit to sanitary engineers. To sell a cus¬ 
tomer service (labor) is an interesting operation. 
The plumber’s own experiences, plus the kind of men 
he employes, and the character of work they do, will 
overcome most objections to cost. The average citizen 
does not concern himself with the thought that he must 
pay an established price per hour, but he wants to 
know (and he is entitled to know) if he is getting his 
money’s full worth when he pays for high-priced 
mechanics. 

A merchandising plumber can sell his organization 
in such a way as to make the transaction a very pleas¬ 
ant and profitable one. 


23 





















CHAPTER IV. 


Window Display. 


I T is probably true that all advertising is good, but 
some advertising is better. This is also true of 
show window advertising. Stop in front of the 
show windows of any large department store, look 
carefully into the detail of the display and the scenery 
used to bring out the value of the merchandise. Look 
at the lighting effects. This is all planned by an ex¬ 
pert window trimmer who enjoys a big salary and 
usually has a corps of assistants. It will demonstrate 
the value these large merchandisers put upon their 
windows. 

Now, because the plumbing business is essentially a 
neighborhood one, and consequently must depend upon 
show windows for publicity, it is a good investment to 
make a thorough study of this interesting advertising 
medium. 

To create an interest in a window display, the first 
consideration must be a thorough knowledge of the 
kind of fixtures the people in the neighborhood can 
afford to buy. It does not do to jump to conclusions 
as to what people will or will not buy. This subject 
should only be decided after a canvass of the neigh¬ 
borhood stores. Learn what grade of merchandise 
other dealers are selling. 


25 


Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


It does no harm to repeat the advice that window 
displays must be changed frequently. People who 
look at the window and see the same thing week after 
week pass by after a time without looking at all. 

Plumbing has hundreds of attractive fixtures. 
Things that the average citizen does not realize are in 
existence. One very good way of keeping up an interest 
and having frequent changes is to display single fix¬ 
tures, or a group of several grades of the same kind of 
fixtures. Tubs, showers, lavatories, kitchen sinks, and 
so on, should be alternated. 

The background should be carefully selected to har¬ 
monize with the articles displayed. A fifty-word card 
with half-inch lettering should be prepared to go with 
the fixture or set up on an easel alongside of it. If 
the merchandise is one of the nationally advertised 
brands, then that fact should predominate in the story, 
because if there is one thing a window display will 
do more than any other thing, it is to cash in on ad¬ 
vertising. Newspaper or magazine illustrations of 
plumbing merchandise cannot convey to the mind of 
the laity the real merit and value of the fixture like the 
article itself. Ft is also true that a customer having 
seen the article advertised in his favorite paper, and 
having read the advertisement, will always stop to look 
at the fixture with a new interest. 


26 




Window Display 


There is one basic thought that should always be 
kept in mind when preparing a window display. The 
public knows less about plumbing fixtures than any 
other merchandise used daily in the home. Therefore, 
while those engaged in the business are familiar with 
the various fixtures and accessories, it will pay to 
make sure that the consumer will recognize its func¬ 
tion, either the way the article is shown or by a well- 
prepared sign that will make it clear to him. 




27 



















CHAPTER V. 


The Problem of Price Tags. 


T HIS problem in the opinion of expert merchan¬ 
dising men, is the chief difficulty of the plumbing 
business and is at the bottom of a lot of failures. 
T here are a lot of good looking plumbing store win¬ 
dows around the country; they don’t sell goods because 
the price tag is lacking. 

The American public is accustomed to buy every¬ 
thing it needs, except plumbing fixtures, through the 
price argument. And price argument does not mean 
cut-price or low priced, cheap merchandise. 

There’s a sales psychology about price tags that acts 
as a closing argument. A piece of merchandise with 
price attached is obviously for sale; it gives the pros¬ 
pective customer a feeling of security when he goes 
into the store to further negotiate the transaction, that 
the dealer is honest and above board; he has only one 
price. Then, if he starts with the price of the fixture 
established in his mind and is impressed with confi¬ 
dence in the dealer, the second step, or the sale of 
service, becomes an easy matter. 

While on the subject of price, it may be well to say 
that the public really knows so little about the cost of 
plumbing fixtures that most prices are a revelation of 
reasonableness. And hence, it would be true that, if 

29 


Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


every plumber displayed prices on fixtures shown in his 
window display, it would for all time kill the canard 
about the robber plumber. 

In the show room a price tag should be attached to 
each fixture. Those dealers who have made a prac¬ 
tice of this will confirm the statement that many sales 
of plumbing fixtures are made to customers who come 
into the store for some immediate necessity, and, see¬ 
ing the price on a fixture, stop to buy it. 


X 


30 







CHAPTER VI. 


Showroom. 

W E’VE been discussing the outward appearance 
of the store, the front. Now we’ll step inside. 
To begin with one of the greatest crimes a 
store keeper can commit is to disappoint his prospec¬ 
tive customers. 

If the window is attractive, clean, and the store does 
not back it up, or if the merchandise advertised does 
not show to advantage, the customer will be hard to 
please, probably will not buy, or, if he does, he’ll not 
come back. 

Therefore, it is necessary that the inside of the show¬ 
room be properly arranged. It is not the quantity of 
merchandise that counts here, but the way it is dis¬ 
played. Set each fixture so that the customer will have 
an accurate knowledge of how it will look in his home. 
Then see that each fixture is properly tagged with the 
maker’s name, if it’s an advertised article, and be sure 
to add a price tag. 

It is especially recommended that at least two of 
each of the heavier plumbing fixtures be displayed to 
show contrast. If your customer comes in to look at 
a cheap tub and you have a better one standing along¬ 
side of it, it does not require much selling effort to 
show the difference in value. 


31 


Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


The store should also carry as many accessories as 
the merchant can afford. These should be sc' jcted with 
care. The aim should be to show the best grade at all 
times, but never to force a sale. It is true of this class 
of merchandise that the best is the cheapest, and when 
showing samples, the customer should be so informed. 
A tovcel bar at $3, that lasts a lifetime is a good in¬ 
vestment, and customers will buy if they are given 
the facts. 

Every day the housewife finds that there's occasion 
to use the many useful bathroom trimmings. There’s 
a never-ending market for this class of merchandise. 
It’s safe to say that there is not one bathroom in a 
thousand that is equipped wdth fifty per cent of the 
needful accessories. 

One of the reasons, that more bathroom accessories 
have not been sold by the plumbing trade, is that 
usually the plumber has these quick selling articles 
in a glass show case fastened to the wall and almost 
invariably out of the w-ay. Then there are so many 
different fixtures in the case, and they are so close 
together that the average customer finds it difficult to 
single out the item wanted. 

The best way is to have a combination counter and 
showcase with glass shelves, each article laid out sepa¬ 
rately. The customer may then indicate the one he is 
interested in. It may readily be lifted out by the 

32 




Showroom 


clerk and placed in the customer’s hand. This close 
inspection helps quicker sales, and the customer buys 
something that he or she has actually weighed in the 
hand. 

Medicine cabinets and mirrors form a beautiful set¬ 
ting for the store. These very necessary articles are 
very attractive. No bathroom is complete without a 
fine medicine cabinet with lots of room in it. Each 
bathroom should have an extra mirror or two. 

Showers are in a field by themselves. The growing 
demand for a shower bath makes this branch of the 
accessory end of the business almost a separate busi¬ 
ness. Most everyone wants a shower bath; the port¬ 
able fixture has a wide range of sale because it may be 
sold to owner or renter alike. 

Bathroom scales are hard to find in plumbing stores, 
yet, if properly featured and shown, there would be 
one in every home. Bathing helps are in great demand 
—bath sprays and so on. And a complete stock of 
this kind of merchandise will always be one more rea¬ 
son why customers should come into plumbing stores. 


33 






CHAPTER VII. 


Clerks in the Plumbing Store. 

O F vital importance is the clerk in the plumbing 
store. In no other business in America today 
does the clerk know so little of the business he 
is engaged in. Call on most any plumbing store at 
random, anywhere, by phone or in person, and try to 
get some information from the clerk. In ninety per 
cent of the cases you’ll be told that “when the boss 
comes in, a price will be made,” or “the proprietor will 
tell you about the matter in question.'' This not only 
puts the plumbing business in a bad light, but it is 
wasting the time and ability of a lot of good productive 
citizens who would otherwise be usefully employed. 

The example of the plumber who has a business of 
$50,000 a year, or less, is sufficient. There’s probably 
an hour or two of bookkeeping a day, and the balance 
of the day is wasted. If these clerks do not accomplish 
anything, it is the employer’s fault. 

Because of an obsolete rule, these clerks are not per¬ 
mitted to tell customers the price of fixtures, with the 
result that unwittingly they daily create false impres¬ 
sions of the business in the minds of the public. 

A little training would make these men and women 
valuable assistants. They are the plumber’s contact 
with the public. They answer his telephone calls, greet 

34 


% 


Clerks in the Plumbing Store 


his customers, and meet the salesmen who call upon 
him. If they have been properly trained, they can 
make visitors feel welcome, and relieve their employers 
of much detail by knowing at all times the prices of 
fixtures and, in some cases, make estimates of instal¬ 
lations. 

The fact that the clerk can readily quote prices on 
fixtures would at once eliminate the impression that 
plumbers are high priced and that they have several 
prices on each article. 

The clerk in a merchant plumber’s store may also 
take charge of the retail selling, make the window dis¬ 
plays and arrange the showroom. 

This work alone should be very valuable both to the 
proprietor as well as to the clerk. 

Very often the plumber employs cheap help in this 
department, because he thinks he cannot afford the 
best. 

Once he becomes a merchant, he can employ good 
salaried clerks either on a straight salary or upon a 
salary and commission basis. 

The commission form of payment is a good one in 
the plumbing business, because the process of selling 
merchandise is new and the extra money thus earned 
forms an incentive to produce results. 








CHAPTER VIII. 


Local Advertising. 

B ECAUSE the plumbing business is peculiarly a 
local one, or is, in most instances, the store 
located in a neighborhood community, it is not 
always profitable to advertise in the daily paper. This 
is especially true of the large cities. As a rule, this 
daily newspaper advertising is best, but for a store 
located away from the center of trade, it is rarely 
profitable. 

To advertise his business, the community plumber 
must adopt methods that will give him the largest per¬ 
centage of returns for his investment. Sometimes 
there’s a local newspaper published in the neighborhood 
once a week. Because it contains items of local inter¬ 
est, people read it. The circulation is small and there¬ 
fore the cost of advertising is not great. 

To use a medium of this kind successfully, the size 
of space should be the first consideration. Small space 
used regularly will produce better results than large 
space used spasmodically. 

Then comes the important thing, “copy”—the text. 
Upon this subject lots of advice may be given, but 
there’s one kind of copy you can never go wrong on, 
and that is, copy of a serious kind. Usually “catch 
phrases” please only the man who writes them. Re- 

36 


Local Advertising 


member you are not trying to amuse your reader; you 
are trying to sell him services as a sanitary engineer. 

In space of this kind it is best to have a leader. Take 
one item of general interest for which you know there 
is a universal demand, and that is nationally advertised. 
Make a “special” of it. Tell your trade that you have 
it. Mention that it's advertised in the “Saturday Even¬ 
ing Post” or whatever magazine you saw the adver¬ 
tising in. 

Divide the bottom of your space into three or four 
small spaces, and show cuts of smaller items, things 
that people need. Keep in mind that these items are 
to bring people into your store to whom you will have 
the opportunity to show your complete stock. 

The general appearance of the advertising should be 
clean, not mussy. Try to have the same kind of type 
used throughout the advertisement, although of various 
sizes. Avoid underscoring and don’t write too much. 
Short, snappy sentences go farther than lengthy argu¬ 
ments. 

Every once in a while, instead of the feature article, 
run an educational advertisement telling about your 
business and the kind of service you sell. Tell your 
trade about the kind of workmen you employ and that 
your customer’s satisfaction is your chief desire. 

The subject of good copy for the plumbing trade is 
practically without end. There has been so little ad- 

37 




Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


vertising written about the plumbing business that, if 
each ad is carefully considered, it will actually be news 
to the public. 

There are other kinds of advertising th,e plumbing 
merchant may do. AVindow displays and store plan¬ 
ning have been discussed. The next is letter-writing. 
This is a part of the business that has been neglected 
by the plumbing trade. To begin with, we want to say 
emphatically, too many letters are an annoyance to the 
recipient. If your letters have a real message, how¬ 
ever, they will be well received and arouse interest. 

Tt may be well to advise the writer of letters not to 
expect direct results. Like any other form of adver¬ 
tising, results are achieved by the “follow up.” In 
other words, advertising cannot take the place of sales¬ 
manship. 

A good letter will create an interest for your mer¬ 
chandise or service and will make a point of contact 
for your personal call. It paves the way for your in¬ 
terview and enables you to get down to business with 
your client without waste of time. 

Because of the elasticity of the medium it is prob¬ 
ably the best form of publicity for the local merchant. 
1 'he mailing list may be as large or small as the pocket- 
book or circumstances warrant. 

Letters to prospective customers should include illus¬ 
trations or pamphlets of the articles you are writing 

38 




Local Advertising 


about and should advise that the merchandise is on 
display at your store. 

One dependable rule to follow in letter-writing is to 
be specific. Never try to infer anything—shoot straight 
from the shoulder. 

Whenever possible, name prices. That is the kind of 
solicitation that breeds confidence. There’s a false im¬ 
pression about confidence. Everywhere you hear the 
expression that this or that salesman is going to win 
somebody's confidence. Now confidence is not won; it 
is earned. It is something to work for. 

Finally, the list of names selected will pay as much 
as you put into it. A good list, carefully selected, 
with every name spelled right, and in which everyone 
is a prospect and has ability to pay, will reward you for 
your effort. 


39 








CHAPTER IX. 


Effect of Advertising. 

HAT are the effects of advertising? In the 
last chapter we said that advertising does not 



T * sell, and if it does not sell what is its function? 
Advertising creates an effect. It is one of the oldest 
forces known. The more you advertise, the more 
people will know you. When your advertising has 
been appearing in a community long enough, it will 
build goodwill. It informs people of your business, 
where it is located and what you sell. 

Its first effect, therefore, is to inform. The mer¬ 
chandise, which you sell, represents the concrete thing 
you give the customer for his dollars, but your ad¬ 
vertising represents the spirit of your institution. If 
the advertiser will always keep this idea in' front of him 
when preparing advertising matter, he will surely go 
in the right direction. 

The definition of advertising is that it is the con¬ 
stant reiteration of a fact or statement. If that is true 
then, when you are ready to cash in on advertising, 
your procedure should be in the nature of a prepared 
plan. 

Take the article advertised and make a feature of it. 
Show it in your newspaper copy, if you are using this 
medium. Follow up your advertising of this article 


40 


Effect of Advertising 


by mentioning it in your letters; display it in your 
windows, and see that your clerks mention the article 
to every customer. The combination of all these forces 
creates what is known as demand, and your sales force 
makes the sale. 


41 





CHAPTER X. 




Location of Store. 

HILE the location of a store is a big factor in 
merchandising, it is not always necessary, in 



1 1 order to do a big business, to be right on the 
main corner in the heart of the city. Those places are 
for cigar stores, drug stores and department stores, 
where the public find it necessary to make purchases 
every day. Plumbing and hardware stores may often 
be located advantageously a little off the main corners. 
Of course, the store should be on a street car line or 
on a street that is well traveled. But it must be re¬ 
membered that John Wanamaker would sell lots of 
merchandise even if he was located on the river front. 
The old adage of “build a better mouse trap or preach 
a better sermon and, even though your house be built 
in the middle of the woods, the world will make a 
beaten path to your door/’ is as true today as when it 
was first uttered. 

Tn a town in the northwestern part of Iowa there 
are four live plumbers doing business on the main 
street. They all seem to be good merchants and pros¬ 
perous. There’s also a plumber on a side street, three 
blocks away from Main street. His street is unpaved 
and the side walk is of clay, but this chap does more 


42 



Location of Store 


business than all the Main street plumbers put to¬ 
gether. He’s a good plumber and a merchant, like 
the rest of them, but he knows how to tell folks 
about it. 

In the plumbing business there, are thousands of 
stores located in really fine places, which are doing 
practically no business because they don’t try, and they 
will not let anyone else advise them. Most of them 
say, “If I were in a good location, I’d clean my win¬ 
dows and dress up the store, but this is a bad neigh¬ 
borhood and I couldn’t make it pay.” 

There’s no question, however, that, if these men 
would invest in a few buckets of water and several 
cakes of soap, they would not only surprise the people 
of their locality, but themselves as well. There’s 
nothing so conducive to general interest as cleanliness. 
Many a plumber, who has a location that he thinks is 
bad, would surprise himself by trying this simple 

formula of soap and water. 

There is room downtown in every large city for en¬ 
terprising plumbers, but this is an evolution that time 
will bring about. The big thought is: Make the most 
of present locations and conditions, and then let natural 

progress follow its course. 

Location, therefore, is a matter of pocketbook. We 
can’t all be located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 
Broadway, in New York, and besides, if the plumbing 

43 






Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


trade teaches its customers to buy from their neigh¬ 
borhood stores now, it will not be necessary later on to 
advertise as grocers and druggists are now doing to 
patronize the home community. 




CHAPTER XI. 


The Jobbing Plumber. 

HE plumbing business may be divided into three 
classifications for the purpose of outlining sug- 



-■*- gestions for proper and effective merchandising: 
lobbing plumber, merchant plumber and contracting 

plumber. 

The jobbing plumber is one who depends largely 
upon repair work for his business. I his class of 
plumbers, more than any other, is to blame for the 
low opinion in which the whole trade is held. 

For one thing, this class is in the majority. The 
chief reason for this blame is this, that such a plumber 
has nothing to sell except labor, or rather has not at¬ 
tempted to sell anything but labor; he lets his shop 
run down and permits the odds and ends of his trade 
to accumulate in the shop and in the window, if he 
has one, until he has advertised the fact that he is an 
untidy business man. 

He can correct this impression to his profit and sat¬ 
isfaction by becoming a student of merchandising. 

If he will display in his window, the various articles 
he uses, as well as- parts and replacements, and will 
see that each part is carefully ticketed, giving its name 
and price, and, if possible, state what it is used for, 
bearing in mind that the public as a rule does not know 


Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


the names and purposes of the parts, he will immedi¬ 
ately gain the respect and confidence of his community. 
Repair work can be made highly profitable. By way 
of comparison, it may be mentioned that a humble cob¬ 
bler in Florida made a fortune by window displays and 
advertising, backed by first-class service. His neat shop 
and careful catering to the wishes of his customers 
brought him repair work from a hundred miles around. 

The jobbing plumber has unlimited opportunities for 
increasing his business and profits. Every time he is 
called upon to do a repair job, there exists an oppor¬ 
tunity to sell some plumbing article to his customer, 
lie is right on the ground. He has the confidence of 
his customer, and this will enable him to sell many of 
the useful and necessary plumbing specialties. There 
is also a chance to sell toilet seats, new bibbs for the 
kitchen sink, bath room accessories, etc. It would 
not be difficult for him to carry an assortment of these 
articles along when going on a repair job, and the profit 
would soon enable him to take his rank as a merchant. 

There is one special branch of the jobbing plumber’s 
business that seems to have been neglected. That is 
profits. Take the case of a leaking faucet. A cus¬ 
tomer calls up and wants the plumber to come at once. 
The plumber sends his journeyman, and the charge for 
the job rarely can be under a couple of dollars. Even 
at that, it is a rare case where the plumber figures the 

46 








The Jobbing Plumber 


actual amount of time his journeyman has spent on the 
job. Result, the master plumber is out of pocket. 
Now, if this plumber had told his customer that a 
washer would fix the leak and that the customer could 
put it on himself, then the transaction would have cost 
the customer only a few cents, and the plumber would 
have made a sure profit. 

But that is not all. He would have established him¬ 
self in the good graces of the customer and would be 
in line for some really profitable business. The next 
time when the leak occurred he could sell him a new 
faucet and anything else the customer needed. 

The whole idea is that the jobbing plumber should 
keep his eye on the actual profit of each transaction 
rather than the amount of labor, because after all, 
labor is a very unstable commodity, and few, if any, 
ever make anything out of it. 




47 










IMWI • ‘ 




> 














CHAPTER XII. 


The Merchant Plumber. 

T HIS is a new title for the general plumber who 
does contracting and some repair work. He 
maintains a store where fixtures are displayed, 
b'or the merchant plumber, window displays are in¬ 
dispensable. They are his contact with the public, and 
in them are reflected the kind of work he does and the 
character of service he renders. In Benjamin Frank¬ 
lin’s time there was a saying that “fine clothes do not 
make fine gentlemen", but that was an ambiguous state¬ 
ment then as it is now. Fine gentlemen have a neat 
and clean appearance and always have had. 

Window displays are the clothes of a retail store. 
You can usually judge the character of the proprietor 
by the way he presents himself to the public through 
the agency of his windows. 

Neat windows bespeak neat work. Cleanliness in 
the window assures the home owner that this plumber 
will not litter up his house. Incoherent windows 
mean that the plumber will waste a lot of time running 
back and forth, and that the workmanship will not be 
anything to boast of. 

Window displays that lack price cards on the fix¬ 
tures indicate, first, a fear that his competitors will 
see the prices and undersell him. It indicates that he 

49 


Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


is still old-fashioned and would rather do the work 
than sell the merchandise, and most of all, it indicates 
a very serious lack of knowledge of what the public 
wants, and therefore it is liable to cause the public to 
believe that - he also lacks a knowledge of the mechanical 
side of this business. 

The merchant plumber displays first all nationally 
advertised merchandise. He realizes that his display is 
the connecting link between the manufacturer and the 
consumer. He knows that the best photograph or 
artist’s painting cannot convey to the minds of the 
laity the details and beauty of a plumbing fixture. 

“An article nationally advertised and exhibited in a 
plumber’s window is half sold.” 

The merchant plumber employs a clerk to operate 
his retail store. He has a big source of profit in the 
accessories which, although not expensive per unit, 
form a medium of advertising and profit. 

Advertising, because the surest way to big things, is 
to do the small ones successfully. A well sold accessory 
creates a satisfied customer, and satisfied customers are 
the best advertising. Sale of accessories means profit, 
because the percentage on accessories is much larger 
than on fixtures. This department of the business has 
unlimited possibilities. 

The writer would like to make a suggestion, in this 
connection, that will help plumbers to increase this part 

50 




The Merchant Plumber 


of their business considerably: In most cases where 
bathroom accessories are sold, the journeyman is em¬ 
ployed to install them. This seems a gross waste of 
valuable time and money. The journeyman is a 
plumber and is trained to do the engineering work of 
the business, which requires his skill and experience, 
but it is beyond comprehension why this high-class 
mechanic is ever employed at his high wages to install 
accessories. Why can’t the merchant plumber employ a 
less experienced worker for this department of his 
business? It would at once enable him to handle this 
profitable line and would encourage more buying of 
such accessories from the plumbing trade. 


51 




C H A P T ER XIII. 


The Contracting Plumber. 

T HIS title fairly well describes a branch of the 
plumbing business—contracting. Jt has a big 

sounding efifect, but what does it mean to the 
laity? After all, that’s the only thing that counts. No 
matter what we as individuals think about anything, 
public approval or disapproval counts for most. 

To the public it means a plumber who undertakes the 
bigger jobs. The very few people who come into actual 
business contact with the contractor know the various 
ramifications of this end of the sanitary business. But 
the public does not and will not know until it is per¬ 
mitted to see this branch, as it must see all branches of 
the plumbing business. Too often the business of the. 
contractor is operated on a gambling basis. While 
it is true that more contractors carry stocks of material 
than any other division of the trade, with the excep¬ 
tion of the supply house, yet a good percentage of con¬ 
tractors do business out of a catalog. Not having capi¬ 
tal invested in merchandise often creates opportunitv 
for temptation to gamble. Then, too, the speculative 
builder who takes a chance, encourages business of this 
sort. 

The contracting plumber, as a rule, has fine office 
equipment, all the modern office appliances and office 

52 


The Contracting Plumber 


helps, which make possible business on a large scale. 

In fact, the offices of the better contractors are as fine 

\ 

as the offices of any manufacturer or jobber. 

These men are at the top of their profession. They 
not only know their business well, but have succeeded 
from a monetary point of view. 1 hit they all lack the 
one essential quality, that is going to change the entire 
attitude of the public towards the plumbing business, 
and that is advertising and merchandising. 

Most of these men are content to wait until they are 
called upon, or they solicit business for jobs that are all 
cut and dried. Others who are not in the plumbing 
business do the deciding as to the quality of merchan¬ 
dise used in the work. So, you might say, that a con¬ 
tractor is largely a seller of expert labor. Would it not 
be wonderful, and it’s downright practical too, if 
these highly educated and successful sanitarians had 
show rooms and would prove to the public—the fel¬ 
lows who, after all, pay the bills—that this or that 
fine plumbing fixture, although a little higher in first 
cost, is cheapest in the end because it wears better 
and longer, and always looks finer i 

These men could show to advantage the artistic, 
modern bathrooms, the kind that are purchased be¬ 
cause they are the best that money can produce, regard¬ 
less of price. And there would he more of this kind 
sold if they would only let the public know that they 
were in existence. 


53 






Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


At the Pittsburgh convention of the National Asso¬ 
ciation of Master Plumbers, in 1920, there was a beau¬ 
tiful display of everything in the plumbing business, 
to which the public was invited. It was advertised as 
a Sanitary Exposition. The number of visitors who 
came was ample testimony that the public would like 
to know more about new sanitary appliances. One 
evening a wealthy lady, one of Pittsburgh’s leading 
citizens, was found admiring a double drainboard, one- 
piece kitchen sink. When the salesman talked to her, 
she admitted that she never thought a kitchen sink 
could be so beautiful and useful. Now, this particular 
woman was the wife of a man who made his money in 
real estate, and she has, since his death, several years 
ago, operated the business. She confessed to having- 
seen pictures of sinks in catalogs and advertising pages, 
but never could visualize how attractive and practical 
they were, until she actually stood in front of one. 

This is only one instance of possibilities. There are 
thousands of them. 

Take the contractor who specializes in factory work. 
Just stop and think of the hundreds of sanitary im¬ 
provements that recent years have contributed to the 
welfare of the factory and mill workers: Drinking 
fountains, wash-ups, toilets, urinals, showers, all fea¬ 
ture items, and all are necessary to the efficiency of the 
modern employer of labor. With a little advertising 

54 





The Contracting Plumber 


i 


and display, they could be used by the contractor as 
entering wedges for business. Business secured in this 
way is, after all, the most profitable kind all around. 
The element of bidding is eliminated in these direct 
sales. The contractor freely gives his best attention 
and work, and the buyer gets a complete job that 
will always be a source of satisfaction. 



55 












CHAPTER XIV. 


The Small Town Plumber. 

T HE question has been discussed by students 
and psychologists: “Is there more ability than 
opportunity?” It’s a big question and probably 
never will be answered. 

One may have ability and not recognize opportunity. 
There is more opportunity where more people live, 
therefore, the big city plumber should have the largest 
average volume of business. But he doesn’t. The 
largest volume of business per shop comes from the 
small town plumber. 

There are several good reasons for this. In the first 
place he usually is so far away from his supply house 
that he can’t buy from hand to mouth like his city 
cousin. When he buys, he orders enough material to 
cut down the delivery costs. Then a curious thing 
happens. 

When the plumbing merchandise arrives, he does 
not hide it all in a warehouse. Instead he puts it on 
display in his store, with the result that he sells plumb¬ 
ing supplies all the time because he has them to sell. 

Business is rarely dull with the small town plumber. 
Therefore, he has learned to he a merchant. Many a 
small town plumber was a merchant before the Na¬ 
tional Trade Extension Bureau became operative. 

57 


Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


But his business is only in its infancy. There is 
developing in the country districts a wonderful oppor¬ 
tunity for plumbing due to the invention of home 
water systems. When a small town plumber sells a 
water system to a customer, he is only starting. He 
sells the system to father who wants to save himself 
from carrying water to the stock, and also because he 
wants cheaper fire insurance. 

But mother wants bathrooms, inside toilets, kitchen 
sinks, laundry tubs, and a hose to sprinkle her flower 
garden. So the plumber, who sells a water system, 
does a real stroke of business. 

Then, too, the plumber in the smaller cities has de¬ 
veloped to a great degree the sale of bathroom trim¬ 
mings and accessories. He really never did let go of 
this profitable side of his business but has kept up his 
store sales. And it’s a rare job in the country where 
the plumber does not include the bathroom accessories 
with the equipment in each sale. 

During the prosperous period of farmers from 1917 
to 1920, they went in for high-class merchandise. 
These people read the advertising columns of their 
magazines, and thus became familiar with the best 
grade of plumbing fixtures. Then when they saw the 
same fixtures on display in the plumber’s shop, it was 
not difficult to convince them that the best is the cheap¬ 
est. 


58 




The Small Town Plumber 


Then there’s the ever increasing field for the sale of 
electric light systems that will eventually find the pro¬ 
gressive plumber the best channel of distribution. 
Manufacturers of these systems have been looking for 
the right dealers. They need a trade that has had the 
experience of the practical master plumber—men who 
can readily grasp the requirements of an installation. 

Once this branch of work has been taken up, there’s 
no limit to the possibilities. The dealer who installs 
the electric system is the man to sell all the electrical 
devices that go with it. 

Probably the only fly in the ointment of the small 
town plumber is the mail order house. There was a 
time when mail order houses were considered a menace 
to trade generally. For a good many years it really 
looked like they were going to gather in all the trade 
of the rural communities and eliminate all retail stores. 
Their plumbing departments grew into doing millions 
of dollars of business per year. Pmt what is happening 
to the plumber has already happened to all small town 
merchants. 

When the mail order competition grew so strong 
that merchants couldn’t stand the pace any longer, 
they did the only thing left to do, or go out of business. 
And that was to meet competition, not with price-cut¬ 
ting, but with service. They began to wash their win¬ 
dows, to throw away all the old, useless junk with 

59 




Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


which their stores were formerly crowded, and began 
to sell their customers high-grade merchandise, plus 
service. That’s something the mail order house cannot 
do. They could not render personal service. Now in 
every small town in the country, you'll find up-to-date 
retail stores selling high-grade merchandise, operated 
by men who, through the competition of mail order 
houses, were forced to become real merchants. 

The modern merchant plumber has the experience 
of these men to draw from and is building his business 
along similar lines. 

Therefore, when an investigator goes through the 
rural districts of America today, he’ll find men who a 
few years ago were ready to condemn the mail order 
houses say, “Thank God for the M. O. H. They taught 
the public to buy better merchandise, and they forced 
merchants to become better business men.” 


60 






CHAPTER XV. 


The Journeyman Plumber. 

S OMEONE once said that the journeyman of to¬ 
day is the master of tomorrow. We know that 
is true of the past, but will it continue to be .so? 
V thorough knowledge of plumbing and sanitary en¬ 
gineering is, of course, very necessary, but the thought 
arises, wouldn't it be better for a man, who has de¬ 
cided to make plumbing his vocation, to study general 
business and then employ skilled plumbers to do the 
work for him? 

Idle journeyman's greatest drawback is his union. 
Unionism is a wonderfully fine thing, but it often acts 
as a damper upon individual enterprise. The journey¬ 
man sells his labor at so much per hour regardless of 
the quality of his services. 

ddiere seems to be a happy solution. Acting on the 
thought that every man who takes up the work of 
plumbing some day hopes to became a master plumber, 
wouldn’t it be a good idea to teach these men that a 
master plumber means a lot more than just efficiency 
with the tools ? If journeymen could be taught to work 
on each job so efficiently and neatly that the job itself 
would be an advertisement for more work, then he 
would be learning the first steps of business. 

61 


Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


The journeyman comes into contact with the master 
plumber’s customers, and therefore, the master is 
gauged by the work the journeyman does. If the jour¬ 
neyman could be induced to regard himself as a pro¬ 
moter of business, it would help him and his craft 
tremendously. 

The premise report card is a good example of what 
service a progressive journeyman can render. He is 
on the job, doing perhaps a minor repair. If he were 
to know that a master plumber almost always loses 
money on this kind of work, perhaps he’d be glad to 
make out a premise report card. 

The report card system as advocated by the National 
Trade Extension Bureau is taken on the job by the 
journeyman. He makes note of what condition the 
fixtures are in. Is the toilet seat cracked? Have they 
a nice appearing medicine cabinet? Do they have 
sufficient towel bars and other bathroom accessories ? 

Has the family enough bathing facilities? Should 
they add another bathroom? Do they have a shower? 
Is the toilet up-to-date? What sort of a lavatory have 
they? Is the kitchen sink modern? And the laundry 
tubs, are they in good repair? Do they need a gas 
water heater? 

There’s no end to the report that an observing jour¬ 
neyman could bring back to the office after each job. 

The merchant plumber should teach his journeymen 

62 






The Journeyman Plumber 


the vital importance of this kind of co-operation, even 
if he had to make a small payment for the extra service. 
Then when the journeyman observes the master 
plumber following up these leads in a practical and 
efficient mianner, would it not create a better impres¬ 
sion of the plumbing business in his mind? And 
wouldn’t it put the business on a higher plane? 

The master plumber can do much to create good 
plumbing merchants by showing his journeymen how 
to help along the business side of the profession. 

For instance, if the master plumber had a clean, neat 
store, with fixtures well displayed, and made a busi¬ 
ness of selling them, would it not attract a better class 
of journeymen to his payroll? 

There’s no question that it would do wonders, first, 
for the immediate profit of the merchant, and, second, 
it would show the future generation of masters that it 
requires considerably more than a certificate and a kit 
of tools to become a master plumber. 

It would be a paying investment in the quality of 
the work if the store and shop were kept in a neat 
and orderly manner. Students of psychology tell us 
that if you put a man to work in a shop, or from a 
shop, that is not orderly, and about which there is no 
air of business or management, that you can expect 
only poor work and confusion. On the other hand, 
men who work from a clean shop and store, where 

63 







MercUaudising the Plumbing Business 


everything is in order, are bound to carry that spirit 
to the job with them. 

The merchandising idea pays in every department of 
the plumbing business. If the plumber will spend a few 
minutes a day showing his journeymen the advantages 
of the modern way of doing business, he will develop 
valuable assistants and will add many additional dollars 
to his yearly profits. 

When a journeyman gets this spirit, he can be pro¬ 
moted a step farther. He may be given articles of 
merchandise that fit in with the work he is detailed on, 
and after the right kind of coaching he will be able to 
make sales. 

When a merchant plumber stocks a new article, that 
he intends to make a drive on, he should, where prac¬ 
tical, see to it that the journeyman carries a sample 
with him. This will add to the profits and make cus¬ 
tomers realize chat the merchant plumber is progressive 
and has up-to-date merchandise. A small commission 
on each sale would stimulate the journeyman’s effort, 
and many of them would become good salesmen. Then, 
when work became slack, the journeyman, instead of 
being laid off, could take out these salable articles and 
might often make more in commissions than his regular 
wages. 

Under such conditions the journeyman of today 
ivill become the real master of tomorrow. 


64 





CHAPTER XVI. 


The Metropolitan Plumber. 

E VIDENTLY the average plumber in the large 
city does not know that thousands of dollars 
worth of good, profitable business is going by 
his store every day; passing by, without even knowing 
or suspecting that the articles they arc going to pur¬ 
chase in some other line of trade may be had from the 
plumber. 

In cities like Chicago, New York, Cleveland, Bos¬ 
ton, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati, there are sold, every 
day in the month, enough bathroom accessories to pay, 
out of the profits, the rents of all the plumbers in these 
cities. Often the metropolitan plumber will say that 
he does not handle these articles because they are sold 
by department stores and hardware stores. Think of 
it, a man, in business to make money, will not sell an 
article because it is being sold outside of his craft. 
You’d think he was a member of a union from that 
kind of talk. 

The only way to reconcile oneself to an assertion of 
this kind is to realize that the majority of plumbers 
do not understand merchandising. Manufacturers 
want to work with plumbers. Most of them prefer to 
market their product through plumbing channels, but 
to do this they must have the master plumber’s support. 

65 


Merchandising the Plumbing Business 




Just what are the chief reasons for the large city 
plumbers’ refusal to handle merchandise over the 
counter? 

Probably the underlying reason is that most city 
plumbers regard themselves as contractors and as such 
consider themselves above petty sales. 

The second reason is that plumbers’ associations in 
the cities are more thoroughly organized and old trade 
customs, which prevented sales of merchandise which 
did not include installation, became so much a part of 
the rules of the business that it is difficult to change 
them. 

The third reason is because the supply houses obli¬ 
gingly maintain showrooms where the plumber can 
take his customers, thus eliminating the apparent neces¬ 
sity for a showroom of his own. 

Fourth, most plumbers of today were journeymen 
yesterday. These men look at business through the 
eyes of labor. To them each job represents so many 
days’ work. 

Fifth, the practice of a majority of plumbers han¬ 
dling the tools themselves keeps them out of touch 
with modern business conditions. The man, who 
comes home physically tired at night, is in no frame of 
mind to study or read and plan. 

Needless to say, none of these reasons hold water. 
They all stand squarely in the path of progress. In 






The Metropolitan Plumber 


the whole country there isn’t a single plumber or con¬ 
tracting plumber or sanitary engineer, no matter what 
name he travels under, who could not be benefitted by 
advertising and merchandising. 

The largest building contractors in the world keep 
up constantly a series of newspaper advertisements. 
They do this regardless of the fact that they have 
enough orders on their books to keep them busy for 
several years. 

The big contracting plumber could, without hurting 
his pride, make displays of factory and office building 
plumbing that would yield him a big return on the in¬ 
vestment. These men could educate their customers 
to demand the latest plumbing conveniences, which 
spell efficiency in office or factory. The local contract¬ 
or, who successfully sells a medicine cabinet or bath¬ 
room scale, makes a profit and puts himself in line for 
big jobs later on. 

The writer has said elsewhere that the American 
home built five or ten years ago did not have sufficient 
plumbing equipment. There are not enough bath¬ 
rooms. The laundry and kitchen need up-to-date 
plumbing. The question is, how to reach these people. 

The show window filled with attractive displays of 
bathroom accessories is a bait that will bring people 
into your store. Then they may be shown the display 
of the modern equipment. 

67 




Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


Practically every family, that dwells in an apart¬ 
ment, has planned to have a home of its own some day. 
To become acquainted with these people, selling them 
some article that they may use that does not require in¬ 
stalling, showing them that you like to serve, and 
presently, when they build a home, you will have their 
goodwill and receive the order for the new equipment. 
And in the meantime, selling accessories as an adver¬ 
tisement has been a paying proposition. 

One more big reason why the metropolitan plumber 
should merchandise as well as his brother in the smaller 
towns and cities is this, that a good cash business over 
the counter can be made to be a regular, dependable 
thing. When this is established, there need be no fear 
of the building slumps that at present often interfere 
with the contractor’s business for months at a time. 

Truly, the metropolitan plumber has unlimited op¬ 
portunities. His windows are valuable advertising 
space, and if based upon the number of passers-by or 
circulation they represent, the city plumber has a 
medium of creating a big local business. 


68 







CHAPTER XVII. 


t 

What Is to Become of the Alley Plumber? 



HEN the plumbing- business lias advanced far 


enough for the public to differentiate; when it 


will be forced to recognize that the plumbing 


trade is a business, then the alley plumber will disap¬ 
pear. The man, whose only stock in trade is a kit of 
tools, will find it necessary to seek employment as a 
journeyman with one of the more progressive plumbers. 

Today the millionaire plumber (if one exists), the 
moderately successful plumber, and the plumber who 
has a hole in the wall, all look alike. There’s nothing 
to choose from. Nearly all conduct their business 
alike, paying little or no attention to appearances. Con¬ 
sequently, under existing conditions, no plumber should 
object if the public refuses to make distinctions. 

Once the new order is inaugurated, however, when 
the public learns that there are differences; that the 
plumber oftentimes is a merchant and has a bank ac¬ 
count; that he stands for a big constructive part in the 
scheme of modern progress, then the alley plumber will 
be relegated to the class of the odd-job man. 

The subject of eliminating the alley plumber has 
often been the subject of discussion either officially or 
just between groups of members of local plumbers’ 

69 


Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


associations. Mostly, however, the problem is handled 
as something that must be handled by legislation. 

Credit ratings are mentioned; minimum stock of 
merchandise has been tried, but these methods are all 
arbitrary and force will positively not accomplish any¬ 
thing in America. 

The answer is in the hands of every progressive man 
in the trade. Every clean window, every neat show¬ 
room, every effort to put the trade in the proper light 
before the public is a blow to the alley plumber. 

So long as old-fashioned ideas prevail, he will tarry 
with the business, and as new ideas are adopted, he will 
go, and with the full acceptance of progressiveness by 
the whole trade he will never return. 


70 




CHAPTER XVIII. 


The Plumbing Supply Jobber. 

I T has been and is the practice in the plumbing trade 
for the jobber to have a big display room, where 
plumbers can bring their customers. Because it is 
a universal practice in the business, no one seems to 
have considered its harmful effects. There’s no harm 
in a showroom for dealers. In fact, it is a very neces¬ 
sary thing, but the basis upon which most supply house 
showrooms have been handled is harmful. 

One of the fundamental reasons why the average 
plumber, and especially those located in big cities, are 
not merchants, is because the jobber’s showroom has 
removed incentive for master plumbers to make dis¬ 
plays of their own. Because there are only a few job¬ 
bers’ showrooms, and as they are usually located m 
manufacturing or wholesale districts, the public has 
not been able to see the new styles in plumbing fix¬ 
tures. Without display there can be no desire created 
for merchandise of this character, and when sales are 
not created, the only time fixtures are sold is in case 
of necessity—when building contracts are let. 

The second important thing is the fact that, sinte 
the jobber has not distributed displays in all communi¬ 
ties, the master plumber, not having a stock to dispose 

71 



Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


of, neglects a golden opportunity because he has no 
investment to turn over. 

In other chapters we deal with the possibilities of 
what the plumber could accomplish, if he were a mer¬ 
chant, and this chapter is written to show that the job¬ 
ber is in a measure responsible for the lack of selling- 
activity, due to the fact that plumbers have not been 
educated to carry their own stock. 

Plumbing fixtures are beautiful merchandise. It is a 
rare case where sufficient fixtures are installed in a 
home. Because the customer has not been really sold 
on his needs, plumbing fixtures have usually been pur¬ 
chased from a cost of service point of view. Displays 
in plumbing shops distributed throughout the cities 
would give the public an opportunity of becoming fami¬ 
liar with the better class plumbing fixtures. 

Just as people know by sight the makes of automo¬ 
biles, they could in this way become familiar with the 
various makes of plumbing fixtures. 

It is true that in most lines of merchandise the sup¬ 
ply house salesmen are order takers. This is true 
primarily because the jobber’s line is so big and it is 
always difficult to concentrate on any single item. On 
the other hand, jobber's men in other lines of business 
have been taught to educate their trade to better busi¬ 
ness methods. These other jobbers and their salesmen 
have learned that merchandise well displayed is half 
sold. 


72 





The Plumbing Supply Jobber 


The secret of their merchandising ability, therefore, 
lies in the fact that they recognize that, by educating 
their customers to be better business men, they auto¬ 
matically increase each dealer’s turnover, thus doing 
away with the fearsome task of specializing which so 
many are afraid of. 

Because of the unfortunate conditions existing in the 
plumbing trade in the matter of merchandising, the 
burden of the work of teaching new methods and better 
business policies rests directly upon the shoidders of 
the jobber. In fact, it is his duty and privilege. The 
jobber is equipped with first hand information on the 
subject of cost accounting, he knows the value of win¬ 
dow displays and is familiar with the market tendencies 
of various fixtures. At the present time many big 
sales of plumbing equipment are consummated in his 
showrooms, and his salesmen are all thoroughly in¬ 
formed on all these subjects. It is, therefore, within 
his province to pass along this knowledge to his dealers 
as a part of his service. 

A leaf may be taken from out of the clothing men s 
business book on this subject. Here are developed in 
the highest possible manner the salesman advisors. 
The average retail clothing merchant gets ninety pei 
cent of his merchandising ideas direct from the manu¬ 
facturers’ or jobbers’ salesmen. 

73 




Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


Most of the big men’s clothing stores in this country 
are successes because they are backed, not financially, 
but morally, by the clothing jobbers and the manufac¬ 
turers. 

Jobbers’ salesmen are prone to pay too much atten¬ 
tion to the big things in the plumbing business. They 
do not realize the tremendous possibilities of the little 
things. This is due, no doubt, to the big building ac¬ 
tivities that occur periodically. Then, there are so 
many big orders for full equipment of rows of houses 
and blocks of apartment buildings that the average 
jobbers’ salesman is able to select the plums he wants. 

The one unfortunate thing about booms is, that they 
don’t last, and then comes the long, lean period until 
the next boom. Sometimes, it’s next year, and then 
again it may be several years before it comes around. 

It is generally admitted that the country has now 
passed boom stages in the building line. There will be 
large building operations for many years to come, but 
it will not be nation-wide as in the past. It will be in 
localities here and there, widely separated. But the 
necessity for plumbing supplies will be increased be¬ 
cause we, as a nation, are making progress. We’ll find 
that in the homes now built there is need for more and 
better equipment. 




The Plumbing Supply Jobber 


In the past there was usually one bathroom to an 
eight or ten-room house. This seemed adequate at the 
time, but under modern circumstances, with the public 
demanding more bathing facilities, these homes will 
require more equipment and many bathrooms will have 
to be remodeled. 

This will then furnish the backbone of the supply 
business—a business that will be regular and depend¬ 
able. The jobbing concerns, therefore, who are first to 
grasp the idea, and who will adopt a policy of having 
their representatives become educators and will show 
their trade how to get this tremendous business, will be 
the big jobbing houses of the future. 


75 




CHAPTER XIX. 


The Plumbing Supply Salesmen. 


I N no other held of business do jobbers’ salesmen 
have so much influence with their trade as those 
who represent the plumbing supply houses. This 
is probably due to the many factors that enter into an 
order of plumbing material. Sizes, shapes, quality and 
delivery must all be part of every order. Then there’s 
the element of estimating, a task which, in a great 
many instances, falls upon the jobbers’ representative. 
This kind of contact, which is more than order taking, 
builds up a confidence and respect for these men not 
equaled in any other business. If these men were 
fully convinced that merchandising pays, and recog¬ 
nized that it would increase their annual billing, then 
we would have here a direct line into the very heart 
of the plumbing situation. 

If the supply houses would educate their salesmen to 
be missionaries of modern business methods, then di¬ 
rect sales would result, for here would be a word-of- 
mouth campaign to dealers from men in whom they 
have confidence. 

Probably the only obstacle in the way is a mental 
hazard. Jobbers’ salesmen are so close to the business 
and have usually been at it so long that the task seems 
hopeless. If these men can remember the electrician of 

76 


* 


The Plumbing Supply Salesmen 


a few years ago and will observe the remarkable change 
that has occurred in that trade, they will begin to see 
the possibilities. And the older men will recall the old 
time “hand-me-down" clothier, who used to pull his 
customers in from the street. You can see what hap¬ 
pened to that trade. Then came the drug trade and the 
hardware trade. All have progressed, and it is only 
fair to say that in each case a large percentage of the 
credit belongs to the jobbers’ salesmen in these lines. 

It may also be remarked that this is not working for 
glory, but is the very shortest cut to bigger and better 
billing. 

The insurance simile is a good case in point. A cer¬ 
tain insurance solicitor asked his manager for more 
territory. He said “he'd worked every prospect in 
his territory,’’ which was twenty-five city blocks. 

The manager’s answer was to cut him down to one 
block and to ask the solicitor to call on every man in 
every building on every floor. In other words, con¬ 
centrate. Result—he multiplied his business by five. 

In a like manner, the jobber’s salesman may increase 
his billing by helping each customer to increase his 
business. 

These men should read up on window trimming and 
retail selling, become familiar with the best methods 
of displaying plumbing fixtures and of bringing cus¬ 
tomers into the plumbing stores to see the fixtures. 

77 





Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


If each jobber’s salesmen would make it a point of 
leaving a new selling idea with every customer at each 
call, the next time he comes around he’d be surprised 
to find that the idea had developed into an order 





CHAPTER XX. 


The Manufacturers’ Problem. 

W HEN a new breakfast food is placed on the 
market, the manufacturer’s salesmen show ad¬ 
vance proofs of the advertising to the jobbers 
and retailers. Usually enough orders are received to 
make the advertising a success before a single package 
of the food is sold to the public or a line of the adver¬ 
tising has been published. 

The tradesmen in question, knowing the value of ad¬ 
vertising, are quick to take advantage of the manufac¬ 
turer’s advertising expenditure to attract the resultant 
demand to their stores. 

This element of co-operation is lacking in the plumb¬ 
ing trade. Recently the writer made a trip over six 
states, visiting both jobbers and master plumbers. At 
the same time a large manufacturer was spending 
$6,000 a page each week to advertise in one of the big 
national weeklies, with millions of circulation. This 
advertising featured a beautiful and practical kitchen 
sink. He asked dilligently every person in the trade 
he came in contact with, if they had made any effort 
to cash in on this publicity. It is very much regretted 
that not one plumber or jobber in the territory seemed 
to know that the manufacturer was doing this adver¬ 
tising. Not one dealer in all that territory had a sign 

79 




Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


in his window or a copy of the advertisement, much 
less a sample of the fixture. 

This sort of thing stifles ambition, it is very dis¬ 
couraging to the progressive manufacturer and creates 
a temptation for him to go outside the trade to find 
a responsive market. Our larger manufacturers of 
bathroom accessories have already done this, and today 
department stores are selling these profitable, trade- 
building bathroom necessities. Few in the trade, either 
plumber or jobber, realize the tremendous volume of 
business bathroom accessories make. A faint idea may 
be had when it is known that some of the department 
stores in larger cities each year have a volume of sales 
as high as $100,000 in this department alone. 

It is fundamentally necessary for manufacturers to 
educate the trade to the value of advertising. They 
must begin at the beginning and teach jobbers and their 
salesmen and the retail plumber. While this might 
seemingly be a difficult task, yet in reality it is com¬ 
paratively easy. The profits to all concerned make it 
worth while, and the trade is fast awakening to the 
advantages of merchandising. 

The trade must be taught to know that the big na¬ 
tional magazines will not accept advertising copy, un¬ 
less the article advertised has merit and that, in some 
instances, it has passed the test of their experts be¬ 
fore it is allowed to appear in their columns. 

30 






The Manufacturers’ Problem 


No sensible manufacturer in these days of efficiency 

would think of trying to advertise an article that was 
not of unusual merit. Truth in advertising is not a 
phrase. It is the adopted slogan of the advertising 
business, not because it is moral, but because it pays. 
When the general trade knows these facts, then the 
manufacturer may merchandise his product by adver¬ 
tising to the public. He will then be assured that, when 
one of his prospective consumer customers calls upon 
the plumber, the article advertised will receive the 
proper presentation. 


81 




CHAPTER XXI. 


The Biggest Business in the World. 

ONSIDER what tremendous opportunities await 
the plumbing contractor who is too much 



alive to wait for building booms. The man 
who wants to do suich work as he has landed 
through a successful bid, installing only such 
plumbing fixtures as some one else has selected, 
will not see it. But the up-to-the-minute merchant¬ 
contracting plumber is the business man Who has 
probably the biggest business in the world waiting 
for him. 

The need for merchandise that contractors should 
sell, that can not strictly be called plumbing supplies, is 
really awe inspiring. 

Water heaters, both gas and kerosene, are a field in 
themselves. The local gas company usually has the 
business of gas water heaters cornered because it 
saw the opportunity to increase the consumption of gas. 
Many contractors had given up trying to get this busi¬ 
ness because the gas company looked big. But the need 
for them is so tremendous that most contractors have 
become convinced that if they will make a study of 
them as a business they will soon find that they can sell 
them as fast as the big companies and usually more 
satisfactorily. They also bring them into contact with 
customers for other fixtures. 


82 


The Biggest Business 


Then there’s the stationary vacuum cleaner. The 
portable electric cleaner has demonstrated its necessity 
and value to such a great extent that a live wire mer¬ 
chant should have no difficulty in showing his good 
trade the conveniences and comfort of having a real 
practical outfit, permanently installed. 

To the plumber, who is interested in factory work, 
the bubbling fountain should appeal as real selling 
merchandise. He has every health agency on his side. 
He has as arguments, health and efficiency, and it is no 
difficult task to show any factory or office manager 
that a drinking fountain will quickly pay for itself in 
the health of his employees and the time saved each 
day. 

Water softeners for estates and country houses. The 
field of electric pumps for water softeners is also un¬ 
developed and offers exceptional opportunities. The 
city plumber can get the order for his client’s country 
home. 

Garbage burners are a highly profitable line to study 
up. This field has hardly been recognized, yet it fits 
right in with the opportunities of merchandising. 

In the chapter on Sanitation and Hygiene, the sub¬ 
ject of dental lavatories was touched upon. Merchan¬ 
dise of this character can be sold. The public is wait¬ 
ing to see such articles and appliances. 

83 




Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


Now, of course, comes the big thought, how to sell 
these fixtures and appliances. First of all, it is neces¬ 
sary to select the type of fixtures you can conscien¬ 
tiously recommend, one that is reliable and will always 
stand as a monument and advertisement of your busi¬ 
ness. You should also select articles that are nationally 
advertised, as the manufacturer of advertised goods is 
always looking for a live wire to push his merchandise. 
And the demand created by the advertising is an asset 
to start with. 

They should be well displayed in the window and 
showroom and prospective customers interested by ad¬ 
vertising and personal solicitation. Most of the appli¬ 
ances mentioned in this chapter would sell on sight, if 
backed by a well chosen sales talk as to their need. 

It’s quite remarkable how little the public actually 
knows about fixtures of this sort. One reason why 
more have not been sold is that there has been no one 
to sell them, and the public has never seen them except 
in catalogs, which do not mean anything. 

Some of the articles mentioned in this chapter could 
be sold on credit or time payments. This may be either 
handled with your own banker or through one of the 
many institutions that take the details ofif the hands of 
retailers. 

Every contracting plumber should thoroughly realize 
just how the water heater business almost got away 

84 




The Biggest Business 


from the plumbing business, and then take steps to 
bring it back. 

A water heater is merchandise. The manufacturers 
realize the tremendous possibilities and have prepared 
selling advertising campaigns accordingly. But plumb¬ 
ers would not carry them in stock. They thought they 
could sell them in the old-fashioned way of calling the 
jobber to deliver one on the job after a sale was made 
out of a catalog, or perhaps after one was sold through 
the advertising. But that’s a very slow way of doing 
business. It’s a penny ante game. And the manufac¬ 
turer was not content. He knew that big sales could 
be made, and he wanted them right away. In fact, he 
couldn’t keep his business going on the few the plumb¬ 
ers were selling. So the gas company came along, saw 
the wonderful idea and realized that here was another 
way to increase the use of gas, so they sold heaters. 

To do this they bought large quantities and put them 
on display. They made window displays and did news¬ 
paper advertising, and, since water heaters are a very 
necessary item in the comfort of the home, they sold 
them. 

The fact that plumbers have said they would not 
buy this or that make of heater, because the gas com¬ 
pany sells them, does no harm to the manufacturer. It 
only harms the plumber, who is not merchant enough 

85 




Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


to see that he can get this business, if he will reach out 
his hand for it. 

It is a very practical demonstration of the fact that 
merchandise properly displayed is half sold. 

The need for all these articles is present. The only 
thing left is for a new generation of contracting plumb¬ 
ers to turn this need into the biggest business in the 
world. And that, besides profits, means bringing 
health, happiness and comfort to the world. 


86 




CHAPTER XXII. 


Comfort Stations. 

E VERY comfort station is a monument to the ad¬ 
vancement of civilization. Nlo person can esti¬ 
mate the suffering and disease and even deaths 
caused by the absence of these necessary conveniences. 
We are only beginning to understand their vital neces¬ 
sity. Every medical authority endorses them in the 
most enthusiastic terms. 

It is the duty of every one connected with the busi¬ 
ness of manufacturing or selling sanitary plumbing to 
bring to the attention of the public the need for public 
comfort stations. Here is a great opportunity for the 
trade to demonstrate that concerted effort, for the good 
of the public, will result in good-will for the much- 
abused plumbing profession. 

Every comfort station will be an advertisement of 
the work that the plumber does. They will be con¬ 
stant reminders that the plumber plays an important 
part in the protection of the public’s health. Here is a 
real opportunity for the trade to do a tremendous 
thing. Every plumbers’ association should make it part 
of its program to interest the mayors of cities and those 
in authority in the absolute necessity of these vital con¬ 
veniences. 

The idea of the comfort station may extend itself 

87 


Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


into the heretofore untried field. Every retail store 
should have its comfort stations. And it should not be 
difficult for the merchant plumber to sell the idea to 
store owners. Conveniences of this sort are added 
service, and every progressive merchant will agree that 
successful business is built upon service. Therefore, 
the store owner should install comfort stations for the 
convenience of his patrons, because it pays. 

If the merchant plumber will prepare, or have pre¬ 
pared by manufacturers of comfort station equipment, 
plans that will show the various combinations and 
approximate cost of fixtures, and if the plumber will 
set up in his window or shop a complete store comfort 
station outfit, put on appropriate signs and follow-up 
by letters to a selected list of prospects and then make 
personal calls thousands of dollars worth of equipment 
could be sold in a short space of time. And the profit 
to the plumber and the satisfaction to the owner would 
make each transaction a pleasant one. 

Then there’s an extra profit. An advertising profit. 
Think of the thousands of people who will use these 
store comfort stations and who, perhaps for the first 
time, come into contact with really up-to-date toilets 
and lavatories. 

This would be a great education to many people. If 
the plumber had his name and address on a neat brass 
sign put up in each station, he would soon find that 

88 




Comfort Stations 


this would help his business along. Then, if he had 
on hand in his store fixtures like those in the station, 
and with prices on them, he'd soon make sales to home 
owners. 

This once more demonstrates the value of merchan¬ 
dising. The plumbing business has the additional op¬ 
portunity to sell merchandise to a public that is waiting 
to be told what the plumber can do for them. 


89 




CHAPTER XXIII. 


The National Trade Extension Bureau. 

HE most forward-looking move in the plumbing 



business is the National Trade Extension Bu¬ 


reau. Here is the shrine at which the pilgrims 
of progress worship. This bureau has the full endorse¬ 
ment of every branch of the industry. Every trade 
association is affiliated, and a large percentage of man¬ 
ufacturers and jobbers are contributors and supporters. 

The Bureau is entirely educational. Everyone in 
the plumbing business who reads its literature is bound 
to be benefited. 

The Bureau distributes literature on every subject 
pertaining to the sanitary business, from a complete, 
modern, efficient bookkeeping system to a letter on how 
to sell a water system. It’s a business college with a 
diploma of success as a reward to those who take ad¬ 
vantage of its teachings. 

It is noteworthy that this Bureau, which teaches 
bookkeeping, accounting, letter-writing, how to collect 
outstanding accounts, how to make v, indow displays, 
how to do local newspaper advertising and to write 
direct by mail advertising letters and many other helps, 
gives its services to those who ask without cost. If 
one had to spend the time and money and go to a 
school, buy the books to study exactly the same things 


90 


National Trade Extension Bureau 


that are taught by the National Trade Extension Bu¬ 
reau, it would cost over a thousand dollars in time and 
money, yet here it is offered without cost. 

Perhaps that is one reason why its efforts are not 
more thoroughly appreciated. There’s something about 
getting things free that the average American does not 
understand. 

In some quarters there seems to be a deliberate mis¬ 
understanding of the National Trade Extension Bu¬ 
reau. This organization is owned by the plumbing 
trade at large and operated for the benefit of everyone 
in the trade. Every individual success is a success for 
the Bureau and every failure is also a failure for the 
Bureau. 

There is considerable talk about educating the 
plumber up to business standards. This is all very 
well, and there lives no man who cannot be taught 
something more about his business. But plumbers are 
not children. They are men who should be given the 
cold facts of trade extension, and every manufacturers’ 
and jobbers’ salesman should be instructed to promote 
the cause along a little faster. 

In these days of rapid merchandising, there’s no 
sense in slowly educating a trade. The idea is either 
right or wrong. Now trade extension has the backing 
of the best minds in the plumbing industry. There¬ 
fore, it requires action. A million dollars in the hands 

91 




Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


of the Bureau could be spent and with only progress 
to report, but if the manufacturers and jobbers of 
plumbing materials were to step in and lend their help, 
not money or moral support, these items are only inci¬ 
dental, lend their physical help, trade extension would 
be a tremendous success in six months. Then, when 
every dealer in the trade was fully alive to modern 
business methods, tremendous campaigns could be in- 

7 1.0 

augurated. Then the officers of the Bureau would 
have the opportunity of paying big dividends to each 
member or contributor, in increased business. 

And lastly, the local plumbers’ associations should 
do their share of this work. Here and there some lec¬ 
tures are given by the local officers. There are, how¬ 
ever, not many instances on record where invitations 
have been extended to jobbing houses to send their 
salesmen to the meeting or to ask these institutions, 
who certainly are in position to know the business of 
merchandising, to delegate a man to make occasional 
talks. 

There is too much secrecy. We must all come out 
in the open, and all together work for trade extension, 
which is another way of working to better our own 
conditions. 


92 




CHAPTER XXIV. 


What a Plumber Sells. 

T HE sanitary business should begin with its name. 
The public is accustomed to associate distinct 
ideas with various trades. The word plumber 
calls to mind a dingy shop that hasn’t been cleaned for 
months. Windows are dirty, fixtures, if any, in the 
windows are spotted with dust and grime. It’s a 
place to pass by and avoid. This description need not 
give offense to the progressive modern sanitary en¬ 
gineer who has cleaned up. Impressions of a class are 
not formed by the conduct of one individual, but 
rather by the conduct and appearances of the whole 
trade. 

The word sanitary calls to mind a picture of cleanli¬ 
ness, more than clean, hygienic. It’s a curious thing 
that the very men who are responsible for the most 
cleanly room in our homes should not themselves in¬ 
habit a clean place of business. 

When the jeweler wishes to sell a fine jewel or 
a piece of art work he puts it into an attractive set¬ 
ting, surrounds it with an atmosphere that will reflect 
and enhance its beauty and value. 

The bathroom is the moral foundation of our homes, 
and it is no platitude to repeat that cleanliness is next 
to Godliness. It is an unvarnished truth. People, who 

93 


Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


are clean by nature or environment, when in need of 
plumbing fixtures, pass up plumbing stores that are 
not clean. On the other hand, when passing a display 
of plumbing fixtures that is clean and shown amid clean 
surroundings, they can’t resist the temptation to stop. 
They are attracted by cleanliness. The plumber has 
the opportunity to play upon a human fraility. Most 
Americans are educated to cleanliness. The more we 
bathe, the more we want to bathe. It’s a habit that 
grows. 

The plumber does not sell tubs and sinks and pipe 
and fittings and valves. He sells the service they ren¬ 
der. He sells hygiene and cleanliness. 

He has something every one wants. In other lines 
of trade the manufacturers and dealers must stimulate 
demand by tremendous advertising campaigns to force 
the buying. The plumbing trade has survived because 
it has something the people need. 

There’s no end to the possibilities of the plumbing 
business. There’s billions of dollars worth of oppor¬ 
tunity in every state in the Union. A sanitarian, who 
fully realizes the vastness of the opportunities, could 
start from his front door, go in either direction, stop 
at the first house and show the people of that home 
the need for hundreds of dollars worth of up-to-date, 
necessary sanitary improvements. This is no idle 
dream. It’s cold, hard facts. It’s like digging down 

94 




What a Plumber Sells 


into a gold mine and finding a rich vein open to sight, 
ready to be lifted out. 

This opportunity exists in no other business. Food, 
clothing and shelter, the three fundamental needs of 
men, are all overworked. Competition is keen and big 
effort is needed to win. The luxury trades and manu¬ 
facturers of fancy goods are all highly specialized. 
They have succeeded only by the hardest kind of 
planning and work. 

But the need for sanitation in our homes is unending. 
The need is not created by force. It is fundamental. 
The plumber can sell it, will sell it, and when he does, 
his trade will become a profession. It is really more 
important than making law’s, because the cleaner we 
become bodily, the cleaner we are mentally, and the less 
use we will have for laws. 


95 






















CHAPTER XXV. 


How To Accomplish These Ideals. 

E VEN though there hasn’t been any great physical 
awakening in the plumbing business, there has 
been a mental change. Everywhere there’s talk 
of better business and trade extension. 

To put any of these ideals into practice, there’s one 
thing left to do. 

Action! 

Those men, who say it can’t be done, should get 
out of the business. There’s no room for them. 
“Can’t” is a word that doesn’t exist in any red-blooded 
American’s dictionary. 

It must be admitted that the task is a difficult one. 
It does no harm to know what kind of a hill we have 
to climb. 

Members of master plumbers’ associations must 
cease doing business on a trade’s union basis. They 
must realize they are business men and not laborers. 

There should be no more resolutions or agreements 
not to sell some particular article, because the manu¬ 
facturer sells it outside of the plumbing trade. They 
must realize that the manufacturer wants to have every 
sale that’s possible, and if plumbers will not do the 
selling, then the manufacturer must forget the plumber 

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Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


and remember the public, which has put a stamp of 
approval upon his article. 

Take the case of water heaters. The trade in some 
cities has lost lots of business because it would not 
sell them in quantities. The plumber sold them in 
terms of labor for installation instead of as a necessary 
fixture. But, regardless of the plumber, the demand 
existed, hence, in some instances, water heaters were 
sold through other channels. Bathroom accessories is 
another item. Millions of dollars’ worth of this profit¬ 
able merchandise is sold annually outside of the trade. 
Some of the manufacturers of the very finest grades of 
these fixtures do not even call upon the plumbing trade. 
They prefer to deal with department stores. 

Small fittings worth millions of dollars a're being 
sold by trades other than the plumber’s. 

These conditions cannot be changed by resolution of 
any association of plumbers. But they can and will be 
changed by the demand of action. Show the manu¬ 
facturers that the plumbing trade is ready to take these 
lines over, and they’ll be glad to help. Once the plumb¬ 
ing trade will demonstrate that it can be depended 
upon, the manufacturers will quickly change their plans 
of distribution. 

There’s no use arguing the question. The time for 
arguments is past. Every day that goes over our 

98 




Accomplishment of Ideals 


heads sees manufacturers preparing to broaden their 
selling channels. This must be stopped, and it can be 
stopped by immediate concerted action. 

Then comes the big thing, the important one, price. 
One hundred per cent gross profit added on to the 
cost of plumbing fixtures is too much. It’s unfair to 
the public and it defeats its own purpose. Of course, 
under present conditions, the plumber who spends 
most of his time installing fixtures must have one hun¬ 
dred per cent or go under. He should have several 
hundred per cent. But if he is ever going to be a 
merchant, he must learn to do business nearer to fifty 
per cent gross profit and turn over his merchandise 
more frequently. We’ve all heard too much talk about 
plumbers’ prices. We must have profits, but we must 
not be usurers. 

From now on a display in a plumber’s window must 
mean that it is merchandise being offered for sale. Old 
fashioned and obsolete fixtures must be eliminated 
from sight. 

If ten thousand plumbers, in the next six months, 
repainted their store fronts, decorated their show win¬ 
dows, and put signs on their merchandise, we’d get 
visions of nearing the ideal. 

And it should always be remembered that the best 
thing about any business is its good-will. Let every 
one connected with the sanitary trade, master plumbers 

99 





Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


and their journeymen and helpers, their clerks and 
bookkeepers, jobbers and their salespeople, manufac¬ 
turers and their representatives, strive by concerted 
effort to build good-will. Let us show the public 
that the business of sanitary engineering is a mod¬ 
ern, progressive business. 


i 


100 




CHAPTER XXVI . 


The “Bath a Day” Campaign. 

F ROM the beginning of the movement to mer¬ 
chandise the plumbing business it has been ap¬ 
parent that in order to crystallize the various 
plans and ideas, something tangible was necessary, 
something that would be understood by all elements 
in the trade, and which could readily be grasped by the 
public, a sort of vehicle of expression. 

The “Bath a Day” Campaign is the result of this 
necessity. It condenses the activities of the entire 
sanitary trades into a definite effort. It is something 
that has the unqualified endorsement of the public, 
the press, and the medical profession. 

Although bathing is more widely indulged in, al¬ 
though there are more bathing facilities in America 
than in any other country, yet few people realize the 
tremendous benefits that accrue from frequent bathing. 

When “Domestic Engineering” presented the idea 
of daily bathing to the trade as a basic plan upon which 
to improve the plumbing business, thousands of letters 
were received from members of the plumbing trade; 
they came from every corner of the country. One 
of the most interesting and probably the most practi- 

101 


Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


cal reply came from a branch manager of a large 
Western supply house. He wrote, “Let us conduct 
this ‘Bath a Day’ Campaign regardless of personal pro¬ 
fits, for after all, if the campaign is to be sound and 
beneficial to the trade as a whole, then it must first of 
all be of benefit to the public. ,, Most of those engaged 
in the plumbing business agree with this Western 
jobber, and it is indicative of its personnel to have 
such an expression at the psychological moment of the 
launching of the movement. 

Here is a brief history of the idea which was an¬ 
nounced in the columns of “Domestic Engineering,” 
November 27, 1920, and which received the immediate 
endorsement of the entire trade. 

Never before in the history of the plumbing business 
did so many of its members agree upon a single idea. 

Plumbers' associations passed resolutions of com¬ 
mendation; the public press published articles upon 
the subject; doctors and health officials added their 
approval; many plumbers who had been taking only 
a passive interest in the Trade Extension Movement 
became active in promoting the Daily Bath Idea. • 

It went .farther, soap manufacturers and under¬ 
wear manufacturers saw in the idea a definite help 
to their business and they too are working to spread 
the good news. 

Then came the need for a slogan. One was adver- 

102 




The “Bath a Day” Campaign 


tised for broadcast, and at a meeting of executives of 
the National Trade Extension Bureau, held at Evans¬ 
ville, Ind., after considering several thousand slogans, 
which had been submitted by the trade and advertising 
men in various fields, the slogan, “A bath a day keeps 
you fit every way” was adopted. 

Now this slogan is appearing on the literature of 
most firms engaged in the plumbing business. You’ll 
find it in the form of transparent decalcomania signs on 
plumbing store windows; it is painted on the sides of 
plumbing delivery wagons and trucks; attractive two- 
color slogan stickers are pasted on every article of 
plumbing merchandise that goes out of a plumbing 
store, and in a very few months close to 3,000,000 of 
these stickers were used. 

Many of the manufacturers who do national adver¬ 
tising incorporate the slogan in their advertising copy. 

This propaganda is having its effect. The National 
Trade Extension Bureau adopted the week of June 
27 to July 2 as “Take a Bath Every Day” Week. Dur¬ 
ing this week a nation-wide drive was instituted to 
let every person in the United States know definitely 
that a bath a day keeps you fit every way. Circulars, 
newspaper advertising, window display, large posters 
and moving picture slides were used. 

The net result more than justified the effort. It has 

103 




Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


taught every member of the plumbing business that 
the public is ready to be educated to better bathing 
facilities; it has taught the public that the plumbing 
business is operated for the benefit of the public. It 
is a great step forward in the betterment of national 
health. 

What a Bath a Day Will Accomplish. 

Twenty-five years ago the City of Chicago was a 
very unsanitary place, more typhoid cases were re¬ 
corded there than in any other city in the country; 
people died like flies; one summer almost every other 
house had crepe on the front door. 

A sanitary board was organized. The refuse and 
sewage of the city were transferred to a canal that 
carried it away. Streets and alleys were cleaned and 
washed or sprinkled frequently. In other words, 
Chicago was cleaned and given a bath every day, so 
to speak. Today Chicago is one of the healthiest cities 
in America; that’s what bathing does to a city. Every 
individual is just like the city of Chicago. 

The pores of the skin are constantly throwing off 
poisons, a bath a day washes away these impurities and 
keeps the skin healthy. The constant contact with 
water at different temperatures has a tendency to 
cause the muscles to relax and the blood to circulate 
freely, thus a bath a day may be said to keep the bather 
in good health. 


104 




The ‘ ‘ Bath a Day ’ ’ Campaign 


How Will the Trade Profit? 

As the Western jobber wrote, “let us conduct this 
campaign without considering the personal profit.” 
This is the surest way to public confidence, and when 
this is once earned, the plumbing trade will reap a 
profit, because of its altruism. 

Once the public has realized the necessity of a daily 
bath, when people actually begin to practice daily 
bathing, then they will awaken to the realization that 
not a single home in America has sufficient bathing 
facilities. 

Today when the details of building a home are being 
considered, too often the plumbing supplies are sub¬ 
jected to a bidding process that usually results in cheap 
fixtures as well as an inadequate number. 

This is due to lack of knowledge on the part of the 
owner, the architect, and even the plumbing contrac¬ 
tor, as to just what constitutes sufficient bathing facil¬ 
ities. But when the “Bath a Day” idea has gone over, 
and it is generally accepted as a necessary thing, then 
the owner will insist upon a liberal supply of every fix¬ 
ture that goes to maintain the new standard of health 
and efficiency for his family or tenants, as the case may 
be, for his family because he wants his wife and chil¬ 
dren to have everything that will maintain their health, 
and for his tenants because healthy tenants are sure 
to pay their rent. 


105 




Merchandising the Plumbing Business 


Every department of the plumbing trade will thus 
be stimulated with this public demand for more and 
better plumbing fixtures. There will be a demand for 
better fixtures and better workmanship. Because of 
the increased interest in plumbing fixtures, the public 
will know more about plumbing installation, conse¬ 
quently, will only be satisfied with a high standard of 
workmanship; just as the average citizen today knows 
considerable about the details of automobile construc¬ 
tion. 

People no longer buy automobiles because they are 
cheap, they want to know what service they will ren¬ 
der; just so will they want to know how the plumbing 
they buy today will perform ten years from now, and 
how much trouble it will cause in the meantime. 

How To Hasten These Results. 

The slogan “A Bath a day keeps you fit every way,” 
has served its purpose. It has demonstrated that the 
plumbing trade from manufacturer down to journey¬ 
man could act in concert, if the idea to work upon was 
big enough. It has shown the public that the plumber 
has a great service to render. 

A new slogan should be created, and this new slogan 
should eliminate an attempt at poetry, it should con¬ 
fine itself to a few words and it should be a direct 
command. 


106 




The “Bath a Day” Campaign 


A direct command is not necessarily arbitrary, not 
if the command is a general appeal. For instance, 
“Take a bath every day,” would be ideal, because it 
could be used in so many wavs in connection with ad- 
vertising copy and general articles on the subject. 

The trade has had a one-week campaign on the sub¬ 
ject, but the idea is too vital and too far-reaching to 
stop at that, it should have a whole month of prodigious 
campaigning, and it should have six months of advance 
preparatory work. 

Then as a follow-up there should be a “Bath a Day” 
week every year. The idea is the most important one 
ever submitted to the trade. It has a far-reaching in¬ 
fluence, since it affects everyone, rich and poor alike; 
and since it is ultimately for the good of all the people 
it should be handled in the biggest possible way. 


/ 


107 





















